HEALTH
SkyFi’s Satellite Images Show Massive Clothes Pile Dumped in Chile’s Atacama Desert
A Texas-based satellite imagery company recently confirmed that huge piles of unsold, discarded clothing in Chiles Atacama Desert can be seen from space.
Satellite images released by SkyFi confirm the scale of the clothes dump previously reported in the media with photos taken from the ground.
“At SkyFi, we are on a mission to easify access to Earth observation (EO) data. One use case for the data is to confirm stories told on the Internet and for this reason, we have captured an image of this pile of clothes from space, revealing the true scale of the problem,” the company wrote on its blog.
One image “shows how big the pile is compared to the city in the bottom of the picture,” Alto Hospicio in northern Chile, the company said. “The size of the pile and the pollution it’s causing are visible from space, making it clear that there is a need for change in the fashion industry.”
Typically, the process for obtaining recent satellite imagery is long and expensive. SkyFi partners with satellite operators to allow ordinary people and smaller organizations to access and purchase high-quality, recent satellite imagery.
“Our mission to make Earth observation data easy and transparent is vital to identifying and addressing problems like this one,” the company said.
